One Third of Businesses Plan to Hire in 2013: Workopolis Study

Skills shortages and recruiting “blind spots” present challenges.

December 04, 2012 10:29 AM Eastern Standard Time

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--One third of Canadian senior executives are prepared to deliver the gift
of employment to job seekers in 2013, but the challenges of finding top
talent and a gap between the expectations of employers and candidates
threatens to derail the process. These and other findings of a
Workopolis study surveying Canadian senior executives called Mind the
Gap was released today.

In addition to the 32 per cent of companies planning to grow their staff
in 2013, nearly two thirds (65 per cent) of executives surveyed say they
are planning to maintain their staff size, with just two per cent
predicting a drop. These findings are in contrast to the 58 per cent of
job seekers who responded to a Workopolis homepage poll with the
prediction that it will be harder for them to find a job in 2013.

Despite the optimistic outlook of many employers, the study also
underscores that businesses are struggling mightily to find suitable
candidates, and this is creating a number of hardships for senior
executives. Specifically:

Source of stress: Two thirds (66 per cent) agree that sometimes
finding the right candidate to fill an opening can be a source of
stress.

Something has to give: Six in ten business leaders (60 per
cent) agree or strongly agree that spending too much time hunting for
talent is reducing the amount of time they can dedicate to other
strategic responsibilities.

Too much time: Four in ten (38 per cent) said that it took
longer than expected to fill positions over the past year.

“Senior executives are telling us that growing the workforce is in the
plans for 2013, but finding the right candidates continues to be the
x-factor,” said Kelly Dixon, President of Workopolis. “Our research
reveals that while specific skills will always be crucial for some
industries, it’s time to get back to basics and focus on soft skills.”

Two thirds of senior executives (67 per cent) cite a lack of soft skills
among candidates, including positive attitude (mentioned by 37 per
cent), communications skills (27 per cent) and strong work ethic (26 per
cent). Candidates also recognize the need for soft skills, but
Workopolis research reveals they mention communications skills far less
frequently (17 per cent) than employers do - suggesting a misalignment
of expectations that could be hurting their chances.

Workopolis data also reveals a number of areas where there is a
significant gap between employers and candidates. For example:

“Working environment” is the leading criteria overall that candidates
use to evaluate a job offer (cited by 57 per cent of job seekers), yet
just 27 per cent of employers say they’re taking steps to create a
better working environment to attract and retain top talent.

The factors that are most important to employees vary considerably
depending on their age and career stage, yet fewer than six out of ten
employers (59 per cent) say they make an effort to tailor their
recruitment processes and messages to attract candidates from
different age groups.

“Recruiting blind spots are masking access to candidates,” said Tara
Talbot, Vice President of Human Resources, Workopolis. “Job seekers and
eager employers are travelling on the same path but often times are just
slightly out of sight of one another. Taking the time to understand each
other’s needs and adopting a tailored approach will help to pull the
challenges of today’s labour market into sharper focus.”

Talbot provides the following tips for employers and candidates in 2013:

Tips for Employers:

Tailor job offers and recruitment processes to the likely career stage
of your candidates

The quality of your workplace is likely to be the leading factor in
recruiting employees

Look to the next generation of talent as young people bring new
perspectives, energy and enthusiasm to an organization

Tips for Candidates:

Don’t forget the importance of soft skills, like good communications
abilities

Strike while the iron is hot: one third of employers plan to hire in
2013

Join the conversation on Twitter by following @workopolis. To download a
PDF of the research findings or view an infographic depicting the gap
between employers and job seekers please visit Workopolis.com/research.
To see footage of what Canadians have to say on the matter please visit youtube.com/workopolis.

About the Research

The research summarized in the Mind the Gap report was conducted
by Environics Research Group and involved custom survey conducted over
the phone of 100 senior executives between September 26 and October 2,
2012. Respondents’ job titles included President, CEO, Human Resource
Manager, General Manager and Director, among others.

About Workopolis

Founded in 2000, Workopolis is Canada’s leading career site helping
employers and candidates connect with each other online. In addition to
the millions of monthly visitors to www.workopolis.com,
Workopolis reaches users across the web through exclusive partnerships
and community sites as well as through innovative use of social
networking sites and mobile applications.

Canadian owned and operated, Workopolis is an equal partnership between
Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Torstar
Corporation, and Square Victoria Digital Properties Inc, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Power Corporation of Canada.